


Afterlife

by Rabid1st



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Episode Fix-it: s04e13 Journey's End, F/M, Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-04
Updated: 2014-02-04
Packaged: 2018-01-11 03:06:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1167904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rabid1st/pseuds/Rabid1st
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Back when Journey's End aired, I promised that I would fix-it if RTD didn't send the Doctor to live out Rose's lifetime with her. Many other people have also written this story. This is just one of my fix-its. It is canon-based to the point when it was written.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Afterlife

AFTERLIFE  
by Rabid1st  
Doctor Who  
Ten/Rose  
Rating: Teen  
Spoilers: To Journey's End but AU.  
Summary: This is a fix-it fic...one I promised to someone.

Disclaimer: I think you all know by now what I would do if I was RTD. I'm not RTD so I can't do anything but pen fanfic and rant impotently...sad and unprofitable pastimes, I assure you.

 

“Oh, that's it! The anger. The fire. The rage of a Time Lord, who butchered millions. There he is.”

The words cut deep. He glanced at Rose, hoping she would say something. He needed to see a better man reflected in her eyes.

“Why so shy? Show your companion, show her your true self.”

His true self. His soul revealed. Dark and cold and, yet, endlessly aflame. Dalek Caan knew. Dalek Caan had been there time and time again, looking out across the starry field of battle. So had Davros. They'd seen him in all his genocidal glory. The destroyer of worlds. He turned people into weapons. How could he have offer such a blood soaked hand to Rose?

“Can't you see what he's trying to give you?”

Yes, a gift. The perfect man, him, yet not him. His face. His memories. Brand new and hopeful and human. This hand given in marriage, pledged to her always. She would be loved and honored and protected.

He would never leave her. Did it need saying? Apparently, it did.

“But he's not you,” she'd argued. Then, she'd kissed the pretender. He'd spoken the right words.

The sight of that kiss had sent a rise of bile into his throat, but he'd swallowed down his whimper of ego. He'd turned to go before the lovers broke apart, before he could break apart.

He wouldn't have been able to stand it, seeing her happy glow. Even if the man she loved was almost him. Better than him.

He wanted to believe she could find peace with this blameless, spotless hand, but he didn't want to dwell on it. He'd truly believed Rose wanted, needed someone like her, someone human and headstrong. He given her someone who needed her. Someone who could age with her, give her children, a home and a life.

“He needs you and that's very me.”

_I need you. Does it need saying?_

_I need. I want. I love. Don't leave._

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“If I believe in one thing, just one, I believe in...her.”

“And she believes in you,” the Next Doctor told him. Ten stared at him. They looked exactly the same, metacrisis twins, one of them human. Him, he was human now.

"Still? She still believes?"

Everything felt tight. His suit. The shirt under it. His underpants. His skin. His skin seemed to be shrink-wrapping him. He shifted his shoulders trying to get comfortable in the human flesh. He wondered if he would ever get used to the oddness of it all, the lack of sensory input, the rapid stutter of his single pulse.

“Yeah,” Eleven said, sympathetically, “It's a big snug all over, that body. And then there's the other thing tightening.” He glanced down at the blue suit's trouser zip.

“Other thing?” Ten said, following the look.

“When she kissed me...well,” Eleven sighed, he bobbed his head again at Ten's new flesh. “That body's response to her kiss, it's rather alarming, really. Probably perfectly natural in a human male, but it shook me a bit, I admit.”

“What?”

“Rose...you know how she's pliable, yielding...just naturally...huggable?” He nodded, not sure where this was going. “And she smells good to that nose. Really good,” Eleven said with emphasis, “You won't believe it. There's no peroxide or fluoride or sulfates to distract a human nose. She's sort of minty and musky. Funny how you notice things like that when it's quiet.”

Ten's brows didn't know if they should arch or wing down into a frown. It was quiet. Used to a clamor of incoming sensory data, he felt cut off from everything. His brain seemed to be packed in cotton. It was like going blind. He thought about being in the dark with a soft, musky Rose and he tingled. It hit him.

“Oh...OH!” He looked at his zipper again. “Jack mentioned that once. It reacts on its own?”

“Just like that!” The new, new him snapped his fingers and the TARDIS door popped open. They both turned to stare at the sad response. “I'll have to get that fixed. What kind of egomaniac treats his TARDIS like a disobedient dog?”

“You wouldn't want to meet him,” Ten said, “And I hope you never do.”

They shared a moment of mental communion over all that had gone wrong for the Doctor since he'd left Rose Tyler on the beach with this other him. It turned out you couldn't really cheat a regeneration or a metacrisis. He'd glimpsed his own future and a bleak and bitter view it was. He'd been forced to come back and set everything right.

“Anyway," Eleven stretched the word out, just as he would have, "Erections. Turns out you don't have to put much thought into them. They just happen...like sneezing. I suppose you'll get used to it. I understand it's quite a useful feature.” Eleven reached under the console and, after a brief tug, produced a strand of TARDIS coral. “Here,” he said, holding out the pulsing curl. “Grown not built. Can't have the pair of you punching holes in the dimensional walls. You should be able to engineer a time hopper to seed this back into the 1700's.”

Smiling a little, Ten took the gift. His fingers stroked the pulsing seed. It was a second chance, a shot at freedom. He could still run. Regret made his voice break as he said, “Sorry, I didn't think of that for you.”

“You were quite upset,” Eleven said with a gentle smile. He bobbed his chin at the door. “She knew you'd come back.”

Ten winced again, turning his head to avoid his own steady gaze. “I didn't,” he said.

“I suppose we have more faith in you than you have in yourself,” Eleven said. His glance went to the slightly ajar door. “Rose is never going to let go. She'll keep you safe.”

Ten nodded. He knew that. Rose kept him fighting. She gave him hope. If he'd met the Valeyard at any other time he would have been lost. But Dalek Caan pushed up the time table on his unraveling. Donna and Davros made him look at himself while Rose was fresh in his mind. He'd finally managed to control a regeneration for her. Now, thanks to the second him, he had fresh possibilities. His face, his form and his memories belonged to another man, a better man. He needed to believe Eleven would be a better Doctor, because the universe needed someone new, him but not him. And he was giving Eleven his regenerations, his TARDIS...his old life. He was letting go of the job, walking away before his own ego could destroy him, walking toward something new and unknown.

“Why is she outside?”

“I asked her to wait,” Eleven explained. “I wasn't sure what I would find in here.”

Ten shivered. “You knew he was coming? You knew I would...change.”

“We've always known, haven't we,” Eleven said stressing their unity. “The Valeyard has been coming since the day we pressed that button.”

“How can we be sure you won't...? How do we know we've beaten him?”

“We don't. But I'm not alone,” Eleven said, tapping his temple with a finger. “I've got a little bit of Donna up here. When I've taken her in completely, we can travel the stars together. I can hear her, even now, nagging away. I can hear the humans, too, my new family. Suddenly, it's all so clear to me...what they want, need, fear. I think I can help them.”

“Can you save her?” He swallowed against the gravel in his throat. “Donna? Can you save her?”

“Yes. But not the way you did. Her body will die, fulfilling the prophecy. It's what happens with the metacrisis. You know that.”

“I didn't want her to die for me, for my happiness.” His voice quavered and the room grew blurry. “I didn't want to face what I was becoming.”

“I know. Donna knew. And Rose knows.”

“Rose,” he breathed out the name. “She must think I'm such a coward....always running. I said I'd never leave her...”

“You didn't leave her. Here you are.”

He almost smiled. “So,” he said, straightening his shoulders again and tugging at his collar. “This is how I die?”

“Living a life, day-to-day, yes.”

“With Rose by my side,” he said.

“The stuff of legends.” The time rotor hiccuped. “Looks like Jack's starting to feel the strain of keeping the rift open.” The new Doctor fiddled with a knob on the console, setting coordinates. Then, he glanced up again. “Are you sure this is what you want? I could always take you both back with me.”

“No. We can't risk it. This is what I need,” he said. Then, he smiled. “And yes...I do want it.”

“Maybe you'll come back at the end,” Eleven said, tapping his temple with a fingertip. “Maybe you will pop back into my head, when that body fails you.”

“Maybe I'll go on to somewhere new,” Ten retorted with a huge grin.

He gave his other self a salute, walked briskly to the door and stepped out onto the bright sun without looking back again.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A temporal wind whipped the sand into a tempest around him as he exited. Rose ran toward him, past him. Red faced with fury, she skidded to a stop beside him as the TARDIS disappeared. She pivoted to glower at him, squinting against the bright sun beyond his shoulder. Fists clenched tight she rushed at him, punching him in the chest.

“You said you could help him,” she yelled. “He can't go on alone, he can't. I've seen...”

“Rose,” he said, seizing her elbows. “It's not what you think.”

“Let go of me,” she snarled, tugging against his grip. “You're not him.”

“But I am,” he said. “Really...truly...I am.”

“You look like him,” she corrected, twisting her arm to break free. “Think like him, but...”

“No, no, shhhh,” he shushed her with his free hand, placing a two fingers on her lips. They were soft and plump and he so wanted to kiss them. “We switched, Rose. It's me. We switched bodies.”

“You...?” The tears in her eyes caught the fire of the setting sun. Her breathing became shallow panting. Her shoulders drooped as uncertainty drained some of the fight from her body. “Switched?”

“It's...a...a Time Lord thing. But I'm me, now, honestly. The proper Doctor. Only...well...I'm not...because I should have regenerated. That makes him the proper one. He's next in line. I made so many mistakes, Rose. But I couldn't let go of you...not after being apart for so long and--”

She interrupted him. “How can I believe you?”

He ducked his head a bit to peer up into her eyes. Releasing the grip on her arms, he let his hands fell to his sides. When she continued to glare at him he favored her with his best lost puppy look. “How can you not?”

Rose sighed and looked out to sea. The tears she'd been fighting trickled down her cheeks. She gave her head a tiny shake. “Will you stop doing that?” she said in a very childish and pleading voice. “Just stop talking in riddles.” Swallowing, she bit her lip, before finding the strength to face him again. “I'm sorry if it disappoints you, but yes, I think it needs saying.”

He drew in a deep breath and slowly released it. Shifting back a bit, he said, “Quite right. Well, then...how about this?” He inhaled dramatically again and said, “I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Please say that's what you want as well.”

He put a hand to her cheek, lifting her chin a little so her lips were at the proper angle for the perfect kiss. A flash of apprehension brightened her eyes as he leaned closer. He hoped she wasn't going to slap him or duck away. His free hand trailed across her collarbone and down the back of her arm. She held very still as his mouth settled, tentative as a butterfly landing on a flower petal, over hers. Ever so slowly he increased the pressure on her lips until she swayed and gripped his shoulders. He wrapped his arms around her, pressing against her body. She groaned and slid her hands up to the back of his neck. As her fingers threaded through his hair, she sent her tongue curling over his lips. He opened to the slick probing, mimicing it as he pressed into her mind. This close he could still hear her thoughts through his fingertips. He fell forward into her, fumbling around in the dark. She reached for him in her mind. His pulse quickened until it was hammering against his eardrums.

 _See how easy,_ Rose said in his head.

_Actually, I was just thinking that it was quite hard. It reacts on its own, you know? Brilliant._

_You think that's brill, wait until you see what else it can do._

THE END


End file.
